In a typical control system for a UAV, a control unit communicates with a centrally located inertial measurement unit (IMU) which passes pitch, yaw, and roll information (attitude) through a filter and thereafter to a control mixer. The output as well as signals from the control unit are passed via a bus, such as a CAN bus, to one or more propulsion controllers which together output a control signal to control operation of the UAV's a propulsion units. As an example, these propulsion units may each include a motor, shaft, and propeller. In addition, a power system, including a pair of batteries, may also be centrally located in order to provide power to the various features of the control system and propulsion units. With such a configuration, there can be many individual points of failure: the IMU can fail, the CAN bus can fail, the propulsion controllers can fail, and one or both batteries can fail. As a result of any such failures, there may be a loss of control of the UAV which can result in uncontrolled flight patterns or maneuvers, stalls, crashes, damage to the UAV, and so on.